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2010
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April
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Monstrously Reverend Lord Professor Bishop Baron Reverend Lord Richard Harries, Baron Pentregarth, Gresham Professor of Divinity, Baron, Bishop, Professor, Lord...
30/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
Daphne Todd painted her dead mother. By coincidence, Van Gogh did a painting once as well - this time of something religious. And Rembrandt painted something religious too. A lot of people use art to give life meaning. Without a nicely arranged sti -
Chaplain (Brigadier General) Douglas E. Lee, U.S. Army, Retired
30/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
Gay Soldiers Threaten Freedom of Religion
I speak on behalf of the Alliance Defense Fund - defending our first liberty. I have faithfully served my country in the U.S. army for many years. I have blessed soldiers as they set out to kill -
Reverend Lucy Winkett, Canon Precentor of St Paul's Cathedral
29/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
In the midst of Prime Ministerial gaffes, the Greek debt crisis, the continuing surge for the Liberal Democrats in the opinion polls, I want to talk to you about Britain's Got Talent.
But even more important than Britain's Got -
Bloomingly Reverend James Jones, Lord Bishop of Liverpool and Bishop of Prisons, Platitude of the Year Winner 2009
28/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
Happy Workers' Memorial Day everyone!
Three words are guaranteed to provoke scorn: Health and Safety. But health and safety are important. There were 27,000 major injuries at work last year, including 180 deaths. One of those deaths -
Shaikh Abdal Hakim Murad, Muslim Chaplain at the University of Cambridge
27/04/10
Rating 5 out of 5 (Extraordinarily platitudinous)
As always, I want to talk to you about a great topical issue in the news headlines. I have decided therefore to talk about a telly programme.
Stephen Hawking thinks we should avoid alien intelligences, at least until we're -
Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral
26/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
Yesterday, I presided over a service of remembrance for the victims of the Gallipoli campaign. For those of you less well versed in history than I am, this was a campaign in World War I, directed against the Turks by France, Australia, New Zealand -
Foreign Office Apologises to Pope
25/04/10
Update
The Times is reporting that the joke memo is causing great anger in Rome. They're wondering why His Holiness is coming to such a terrible place where he might be arrested by "militant secularist" Richard Dawkins. (That's right - he's been promoted from jus -
The Pyjama Parade
24/04/10
I've just finished reading The Pyjama Parade by Steve Gilhooley. It was recommended to me, for reasons that I won't go into, by a good friend of mine from seminary. It describes, in graphic detail, the brutality and abuse Gilhooley experienced at a junior Catholic seminary in Cumbria durin -
Reverend Rob Marshall, an Anglican Priest
24/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
I read a book once where two people dreamed of peace in the Middle East. It was really very good, so I read it again.
Meanwhile, the chances of peace in the Middle East are not improving as relationships between President Obama and Prim -
Titanically Reverend Lord Professor Bishop Baron Reverend Lord Richard Harries, Baron Pentregarth, Gresham Professor of Divinity, Baron, Bishop, Professor, Lord...
23/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
Happy Saint George's day old boy! Saint George is the patron saint of England on account of him being a Palestinian dragon murderer. For the same reason he is also patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palest -
Reverend Angela Tilby, Vicar of St Benet's Church in Cambridge
22/04/10
Rating Unrated
As today was effectively a eulogy for a friend, there will be no POTD today.
Listen
Read -
Rabbi Lionel Blue
21/04/10
Rating 2 out of 5 (A little platitudinous)
It hasn't been easy being a gay rabbi for the last 40 years - 25 of those years spent happily with my partner. There's much talk about whether gays should be allowed to adopt straight children, but at least it is talked about. I had the -
Shaikh Abdal Hakim Murad, Muslim Chaplain at the University of Cambridge
20/04/10
Rating 2 out of 5 (A little platitudinous)
Thousands of people around the world will be huddling around their internet connections this morning listening to me in far away places, stranded because of the airport flight ban. Because we all know, that the one thing we can't miss while -
Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral
19/04/10
Rating 2 out of 5 (A little platitudinous)
My two daughters dragged me into a trendy shop in the King's Road where I saw a t-shirt that shocked me. Shocked me I tell you, shocked me! The logo offered sex for drugs and in terms that a nice vicar like me simply couldn't repeat on -
The Right Reverend and Right Honourable The Lord Carey of Clifton PC DD
18/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
I want to talk to you today about the very serious decline in standards by the British judiciary. One after another we have seen the traditional rights of Christians trampled into the dust. Whether it's our right to flout health and safety reg -
Vishvapani, a member of the Western Buddhist Order
17/04/10
Rating 0 out of 5 (Not platitudinous)
I watched the interactive debate on Thursday night between the three party leaders. Election time is a test for voters as much as for politicians. We have to assess their fiercely competing claims and decide who should run the country.
Some -
Dinah on theodicy
16/04/10
Over the years, I have read various attempts by Christians and Muslims to reconcile the idea of a omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibenevolent God with an apparently arbitrary world where the innocent suffer as much and sometimes more than the guilty, eg:
1. A perfect world woul -
Volcanically Reverend Lord Professor Bishop Baron Reverend Lord Richard Harries, Baron Pentregarth, Gresham Professor of Divinity, Baron, Bishop, Professor, Lord...
16/04/10
Rating 2 out of 5 (A little platitudinous)
Those clever scientists have gone and done it again. They've transferred DNA from a fertilised egg to another egg with working mitochondria. Hurrah for science! As an expert on theology, I was part of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology A -
Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies and Public Understanding and Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam, University of Glasgow
15/04/10
Rating 5 out of 5 (Extraordinarily platitudinous)
There's been another terrible natural disaster, this time in China. As we watch the heart-rending images of the dead and suffering, some will ask where will we get the clothes, blankets and tents to protect the survivors? How will we -
Dr Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations
14/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
There's a big Sikh festival today. Happy Vaisakhi everyone! It was on this happy spring festival in 1699 that the last Sikh Guru finally declared Sikhism as a proper standalone religion. He believed that all people, regardless of their Invisib -
Rabbi Lionel Blue
13/04/10
Rating 2 out of 5 (A little platitudinous)
Good morning John, good morning Sarah and good morning to you all.
Well, Passover has passed over once again and it was very nice. I stayed with a very nice, very wise woman who accepted me and my partner as part of their family.
-
Reverend Roy Jenkins, Baptist Minister in Cardiff
12/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
It's been a terrible tragedy for Poland. Much of Poland's elite, including it's elite clergy, died in the crash. Many of Britain's plumbers will be very upset by this.
Some people don't like elites, they think i -
Open letter to Prof Brian Cox
11/04/10
Dear Prof Cox
I recently read your profile in New Scientist. It was apparent from this article that you have enjoyed a successful career as a musician, including the No 1 hit "Things can only get better". Unfortunately you did not have the good grace to do as many young rock sta -
Welcome to Britain your Holiness - why not stay a while?
11/04/10
Your Holiness, you are charged that throughout the 20th century you were part of a worldwide conspiracy to cover up widespread sexual, physical and mental abuse of children in the organisation known as the Universal, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. That you yourself failed to act in -
Catherine Pepinster, editor of the Catholic newspaper, The Tablet
10/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
Martina Navratilova, a superstar in the world of tennis, has cancer.
This just goes to show that even the fittest people can be struck down by the Invisible Magic Friend at any time, so you had better be nice to him. You may think you� -
Rev John Bell of the Iona Community
09/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
Good morrrrning.
The US and Russia have agreed to dismantle thousands of nuclear warheads. These weapons are capable, not only of destroying the human race, but also of inflicting devastating damage on planet Irth. Humans should not be -
Rev Dr. (hon. Kingston) Dr. (hon. St. Andrews) Joel Edwards, International Director of Micah Challenge, Human Rights Commissioner, Council Member of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation
08/04/10
Rating 5 out of 5 (Extraordinarily platitudinous)
The evil forces of international secularism are cruelly oppressing we Christians yet again. The nurse, Shirley Chaplin, has been told she cannot be a Christian and remain a nurse. Her only crime was to wear a three foot tall, flashing, neo -
Rabbi Lionel Blue
07/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
Good morning Evan, good morning Jim and good morning to you all.
Today's news is all about the election, which is why I want to talk to you about the spiritual aspects of eggs. Eggs are crucial to all religions, no matter which gove -
Right Awful Anne Atkins - Agonising Aunt and Vicar's Wife
06/04/10
Rating 5 out of 5 (Extraordinarily platitudinous)
I'm a complicated sort of person. People like some bits of me: my lush, seductive voice, my playful good looks, my intellectual achievements, my ability to list the works of Plato and Socrates. Then there are aspects of me that other -
Reverend Roy Jenkins - Baptist minister in Cardiff
05/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
This time of year usually spawns some silly tabloid stories about the history, literature or archaeology of Jesus' time - the kind of thing that might test the faith of the more weak willed Christians. Fortunately, proper Christians like me pa -
The strongest field of Clemmie contenders yet
04/04/10
It has been a bumper month for platitudes. In fact my cup so overfloweth with platitudinousness this month that I hardly know where to begin. But before we go on to look at some of the highlights, I want to wag my finger at John Bell of the Iona Community who got 0 out of 5. That simply isn't g -
Catherine Pepinster, editor of the Catholic newspaper, The Tablet
03/04/10
Rating 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)
Happy nearly Easter everyone! Although I have to admit, as a Catholic, I'm feeling a bit down at the moment. Tonight we celebrate the moment when Jesus definitely rose from the dead and so saved us all. Peter, the first Pope, from whom the Cat -
Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres KCVO, Lord Bishop of London (the THIRD most senior bishop in the Church of England!), Privy Counsellor, Prelate of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Dean of the Chapels Royal, Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, Liveryman of the Merchant Taylors' Company, Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Weavers, Chaplain of the The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, Chairman of the Ecumenical London Church Leaders, Chairman of the Church Buildings Division, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners, Chairman of the Trustees of St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace
02/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
I must say, presenting Thought For The Day is a considerable improvement over my last appearance on the Today Programme.
Happy Good Friday everyone! It's that jolly time of year again when we remember Jesus being horribly tortured a -
Whoppingly Reverend James Jones, Lord Bishop of Liverpool and Bishop of Prisons, Platitude of the Year Winner 2009
01/04/10
Rating 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)
Today is Maundy Thursday, when the Queen, who is the head of my church and therefore England's top believer, gives her Maunday Money to 84 Maundy pensioners, who would otherwise be maundiless. The grateful Maundy pensioners then take their 40 -
A statement from Platitude Of The Day
01/04/10
Over the years I've done my fair share of criticising religion. I've laughed at their absurd claims to moral superiority. I've mocked clerics' self-styled titles and pomposity. I've ridiculed the inconsistency of the Bible. Yet despite all of this, aspects of my Catholic upb
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Monstrously Reverend Lord Professor Bishop Baron Reverend Lord Richard Harries, Baron Pentregarth, Gresham Professor of Divinity, Baron, Bishop, Professor, Lord...
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